IF you have to earn the right to play
the blues, Steve Darrington – organiser of this weekend’s Swanage
Blues & Roots Festival has paid his dues in full.

After contracting polio at the age of six – just
three months before the vaccine was made universally available in the UK –
he was confined to a wheelchair. For most of the following decade he was
lost and alone until, at the tender age of 15, he was found by the blues,
started to play the piano and slowly clawed his way towards some kind of
recovery. He still needs walking sticks and sometimes a mobility scooter to
get about.

“I spent a whole year in hospital when I was
six, lots more time having operations to help me walk and stuff, and I’m
forever grateful to my parents for not putting me in a home, which was the
norm for people in those days.”

He went on to play on some 50 albums and
appeared with the likes of Mark Knopfler and Marty Wilde – he even played at
Wembley Arena, supported by rock royalty Queen.

“I never set out to play with the Everly
Brothers, Lonnie Donegan, or any of those wonderful blues, jazz and country
stars I worked with. I just wanted to play music as well as I could, and
they recognised that and wanted us to play together.

“In 1974 I recorded with Chris Jagger, brother
of Rolling Stone Mick, at Rockfield Studios in Wales along with Peter
Frampton, Dave Edmunds, Pick Withers, Micky Waller, Andy Bown and BJ Cole. I
didn’t see Chris Jagger for the next 34 years until I went to one of his
gigs a couple of years ago at Lulworth Castle. He recognised me and invited
me to join him and Ben Waters on stage for a couple of songs – that’s show
business!”

Steve Darrington’s life is one of bravery and
brilliance. Now a resident of Swanage, Steve holds fond feelings towards the
seaside town: “Ah, Swanage. I came here for two days in August 2000 and was
so well received that I just never went back to Buckinghamshire.”

He’s been involved with the Blues Festival since
March 2001 and, as the artists it attracts have become more prestigious each
year, it’s now one of the major music events on the county’s calendar.

“The first Swanage Blues Festival started off as
a birthday party for a local blues fan called George Crane,” Steve
recollects.

“Most of the musicians that play here in Swanage
are very well known elsewhere and command much higher fees than this little
town can afford to pay. But what we offer is a fantastic experience of
thousands of enthusiastic fans that are right there.”

From Friday until Sunday, some forty gigs will
be played in 15 venues across Swanage, many of them completely free.

Highlights include accomplished musicians such
as the Back Porch Band and Blue Touch across venues including The Anchor Inn
and East Bar.

This year’s festival features a daily Open Mic
Night as well as further entertainment from C Sharp Blues, Johnny Sharp and
many other acts.

Steve is a ready advocate of the festival’s
party ethos.

“You see, admission to the pubs, restaurants and
hotel bars has to be free because any attempt to make entry charges would
totally destroy the party atmosphere.”

Which bodes well for the festival’s future,
since Steve intends to carry on organising it “for as long as I enjoy
parties!”

Steve professes that the blues is spawned by
feelings of “humour, joy and excitement – as well as those of sorrow” and is
intriguingly sensitive to the reasons for the blues existing for a man who
has spent his life in the music industry. It’s this charm and infectious
enthusiasm for the Blues that is bound to result in a spectacular weekend of
music.

Steve sums up his charismatic personality when
asked about his own favourites.

“My musical favourites are too many to mention”,
he jokes, before quoting Buddy Rich: “There are only two types of music –
good and bad!”

Surprising to say, admission to all
venues is free. Even more surprising, the Swanage Blues Festival is
organised by one man without any payment, grants or sponsorship. So why does
he do it? In this e-letter Steve Darrington explains to readers of
Blues In Britain:

It all started in the 60s when I
was 15 and in a wheelchair due to Polio as a child – I was in a bad way at
the time. A kid at school was playing blues harmonica and I just knew I
could do it brilliantly even though I’d never been particularly musical
before. I persuaded Mum to buy me a mouth organ for Christmas, practised for
months to a Sonny Boy Williamson LP and within six months was out of that
wheelchair and playing in an acoustic duo.

When I was 17 John Mayall’s
Bluesbreakers played at our school dance. I shared a bottle of Chianti with
Eric Clapton, played his Les Paul and chatted with the band. The heady mix
of alcohol, music and groupies left me highly motivated for months. I
thought: “If these guys can do it, why can’t I?”

I went off to Sussex Uni for a
while but it wasn’t for me. While I was there and supposed to be studying
languages, I did learn a lot of piano from two other students: Ben Sidran,
who was doing the UK’s first-ever PhD in Jazz, and Pete Wingfield – you
might have seen him with the Everly Brothers or Albert Lee, and his Number
One Hit was "18 with a Bullet"..

Back in High Wycombe I played with
a local blues band and we got a recording deal with the American label Epic
under the name Mahogany. Tony Clark, who was producing The Moody Blues and
King Crimson at the time, produced the album and it still stands up today.
Unfortunately there was a licensing cock-up and it was released in the USA
but not in the UK so that was the end of that.

We carried on for a while as Marty
Wilde’s backing band, which was great fun and we learnt a lot doing live TV
and radio, two shows a night, in nightclubs and working men’s clubs.

I knew Ron Watts, the promoter at
my local pub, the Nag’s Head in High Wycombe pretty well by then. I could go
to see acts of the calibre of Fleetwood Mac and Chicken Shack every week
down the end of my road, and he quite often put on blues legends like
Howling Wolf. Ron liked to sing himself and had this idea of forming an
entertaining blues band with Cajun influences, and so Brewers Droop was
formed.

We had a crazy time for years doing
the college circuit, blues clubs, festivals, abroad, you name it. We even
did a residency at London’s 100 Club for nearly 40 nights. We were playing
in our own right and backing visiting Americans like Arthur Big Boy Crudup.
At a festival one day we preceded Spencer Davis, Incredible String Band, Lindisfarne, Average White Band, Slade, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, and
the Beach Boys – can you imagine the artists’ beer tent!

By 1974 the climate for a
self-financing touring band became unfavourable due to high petrol prices. I
left Brewers Droop the same time as our rhythm guitarist, Mark Knopfler,
though some of the other guys carried on for a while. I joined a western
swing outfit called Shucks and we played the pub rock circuit for a few
years.

In the early 1980s I was part of
The Roxon Roadshow, a country rock ensemble that sometimes had fourteen
members or more! We had a recording studio, record label and regularly
backed visiting artists at Wembley for the Easter country extravaganzas.

That was where I met Lonnie Donegan
and he persuaded me to join his band. So there I was yet again, working with
a childhood hero. I also had a band called ‘Steve Darrington’s MAGIC” – I
think it stood for Middle Aged Gents In Concert.

It was in 1993 that I formed The
Boogie Band doing the sort of stuff Jools Holland is doing now, except we
could only afford to have four musicians in the band. Still, we used the
same act for jazz, blues, rock, folk and world music festivals. We even did
weddings at stately homes – just more expensive rent parties, I guess!

Over the years I’d carried on with
my session work and made over fifty albums. In 1999, after an accident put
paid to my touring days, I came to Swanage as resident pianist in a hotel. I
started off organising the blues festival as a big birthday party and it’s
just grown every year since.

But then Swanage is a lovely
seaside town with excellent pubs and restaurants, and accommodation is
available at reasonable prices. There’s a great line-up again this year and
since it’s free admission, the price has to be right!

Nowadays I can’t do all the touring
I used to, so it’s a great way to get everybody to come to me, and of
thanking Swanage for making me feel so welcome.

By the way, if you do turn up, make
sure you say “Hello”; and if you need help or advice putting on something
similar in your area, let me know. It will be a pleasure.

This interview appeared on the back page of the Polio
Fellowship Bulletin in January 2007 in the series My Way, prefaced with
“This issue, Steve Darrington recalls his extra-ordinary life”.

In 1955, on my
sixth birthday and just a few months before the vaccine became available, I
caught Polio. The ambulance rear doors had a large gap through which I could
see the road racing away behind me.

At the hospital,
I remember being laid naked on a cold examining table and a roomful of
people in gowns and masks being admitted. An ‘adult’ voice boomed out: “This
is Stephen Darrington. He contracted Poliomyelitis on his sixth birthday and
is not expected to live.”

I was kept in
isolation for weeks – no TV, no radio, no company – and eventually taken to
that room again, this time to hear the same words, followed by: “As you can
see, he is alive but will never live a normal life.”

That was what
did it really. At that young and tender age I resolved not to have a
“normal” life, but to have an abnormal, extra-ordinary life. I spent awhole year in hospital at age six, and many
months more in later years for tendon transplants on my feet. When I was 13
there was a complicated operation to shore up my back with a spinal fusion –
without that I would have been bent over double for the rest of my life.

My worst and
best year in a way was at age 15. The usual teenage frustrations and
torments were compounded by being disabled, and resulted in an incredible
transference of pent-up energy into music. I had never been serious about it
before but when I heard the blues of Sonny Boy Williamson, my spirit was
released from the physical confines of my body. Mum bought me a harmonica, I
practised for six months… and got worse!

Undaunted and
spurred on by musical desire (and the girls who were now beginning to take
an interest in me!) I was soon out of my wheelchair and at age 16 was
leading a Rhythm ‘n’ Blues band. I taught myself organ and piano,and by the time I was 20, Marty Wilde had
recruited me into his backing band as a professional Wild Cat!

This led onto
years in music with artists such as Lonnie Donegan, Don Everly and
Rose-Marie, playing at Wembley, Abba’s castle in Sweden, the London
Palladium and rock, jazz and world music festivals all over. I made over 50
albums.

When not able to
work as a full-time musician, I was in publishing, a director of
advertising, marketing and manufacturing companies, and presented cases at
local Appeals Tribunals.

By the time I
was in my mid-40s parts of me were beginning to wear out, and I managed to
retire at age 50 to Swanage in Dorset. I keep busy here thanks to the tax
credits system, designing posters and greeting cards, organising events and
festivals, and campaigning for improvements in everyday life for disabled
people via broadcasting and websites. See www.mobility-scooters.info and
www.stevedarrington.com

Looking back, my
parents were told to forget about me and put me in a home - thank God they
didn't do it, but gave me an unbelievable amount of help and support at
great cost to their own lives. My sincere love, gratitude and respect go out
to them.

I’ve
had many jobs and relationships too – looking back I believe that quite a
few failures were due to my determination not to let anything get me down,
until everything just got too much for me. I’m more careful nowadays. I
certainly have realised that six-year-old child’s determined goal,
formulated in despair so many years ago, and led a most extra-ordinary life.
And, to a great extent, a happy one!

Just
Steve Talking

In 1968 there was a guitar, bass, drums trio of
keen teenagers playing Blues in the styles of BB King, Junior Wells, Buddy
Guy etc operating around the Amersham, Chesham area of Buckinghamshire and I
sat in on harmonica a couple of times. Taking a year off from Sussex
University in 1969, I joined the band – called Mahogany Guinness – and we
wowed them at youth clubs, parties and pubs. The personnel: John Mackay,
guitar and lead vocals; Joe Southall, bass; Paul Hobbs, drums; and me on
harmonica and vocals. I remember putting a Shure microphone through a Vox
bass amp and a 15” speaker – it sounded like an express train at times! John
and I developed unison lead lines and swapping phrases – sounded great with
his SG3, and the rhythm section was both superb and creative.

We were fed by our own
enthusiasm and all the American and British acts playing at my local, the
Nags Head in High Wycombe. Ron Watts was promoting all sorts of top bluesmen
and we were witness, on a weekly basis, to many Blues Legends. People like
Howling Wolf, Otis Spann, Lightning Hopkins, Freddie King, Albert King,
Lightning Slim and Whispering Smith, Juke Boy Bonner, Arthur ‘Big Boy’
Crudup and scores more. Fleetwood Mac, Status Quo and most famous bands also
appeared there, and a relatively unknown Paul Simon once did the interval
spot.

John and Paul were working at
a company called Spa Brushes in Amersham, and the owner, Rodney Harnett,
became our manager. Fair play to him, he tried to put business heads on
young musicians’ shoulders – always a thankless task. Anyway, he arranged
for us to do a demo at Jack Jackson’s son Malcolm’s studios, pushed the tape
to a promotions company in London, paid them £30 a week for 13 weeks in
advance to get us a record deal. They came back with seven offers, including
CBS England and Epic (CBS America). The best deal was the Epic one, so we
took it.

Epic employed Tony Clark to
produce the album. What a strange thing to do! Tony was having huge success
with the Moody Blues’ theme albums and was about to record King Crimson’s
first album, yet suddenly here he was looking at a bunch of raw amateurs in Chartridge village hall in Buckinghamshire. He agreed to take us on, we went
into Wessex Studios 18 hours a day for a week, and recorded the album. Most
of the tracks were our own, and I became the band’s keyboard player as well
because I could play a little piano. It was well produced with a huge sound
at times, but our gutsiness and raw feeling still came through. Boy, were we
young!

We dropped the Guinness from
the name for obvious reasons, and became Mahogany. Epic released the album
in the USA, but there was some hitch with CBS UK who wouldn’t release it
here, so that was that. We were a British blues band playing in Britain,
with an album out in America, where we couldn’t afford to go to promote it.
Never mind, we became the backing band for Marty Wilde and learnt a lot
about the music business playing live radio, live TV, working men’s clubs,
nightclubs, festivals and recording an album with him.

After that year, John and I
were approached by Ron Watts in 1970 and we formed a band called Brewers
Droop, with Bob Walker on drums and Malcolm Barratt on bass and violin. I
was introduced to the accordion, played a Hohner Pianet and harmonica, John
was on guitar, Ron assembled a variety of props, musical and otherwise, and
we hit the clubs and the festivals. We were a bawdy, Cajun R&B band that was
unaware of boundaries.

We had about four years of
craziness, backing all sorts of top blues men including The Mighty Flea, Big
Boy Arthur Crudup, Mickey Baker… oh, so many I can’t even begin to remember
them all. It’s one of those situations where I see a name nowadays and go “I
played with him!”, then remember it was Belfast, or Germany or somewhere.

It was a four day party and
we spent much of it with the other performers in the artists' beer tent!

Apart from the first album
‘Opening Time’ - which was produced by Tom McGuinness, formerly of Manfred
Mann, soon to be McGuinness Flint and now in The Blues Band - we recorded a second one at Rockfield
Studios towards the end of the band’s life. That got released as ‘The Booze
Brothers’ and contained contributions from Dave Edmunds, Mark Knopfler and
Pick Withers.

Like every touring band
member in the 1970s, the memories I have are quite incredible: standing
alone on the top of a snow-capped mountain in the Lake District playing
blues clarinet to an echoed chorus across the valley, champagne receptions
at RCA in Curzon Street, wild nights playing to celebs at the Marquee and
the Speakeasy, gigs at Liverpool’s original Cavern, trips on boats and
planes, breakdowns on the autobahn in Germany (I was the only one with a
little German), friendships formed with revered American Bluesmen over three
times my age, being repatriated in the cargo hold of a plane when things
went wrong somewhere, near-the-knuckle radio broadcasts from Pebble Mill,
encounters with exotic women, camaraderie with rock legends, a whole evening
in a private bar with Muddy Waters and his entire band,
and stories so outrageous even people who were there find it difficult to
believe them!

Not bad for the boy who was
in a wheelchair, the result of Polio at age six, until he was fifteen and
heard the harmonica playing of Sonny Boy Williamson. Thank you, Mr Rice
Miller.

The climate for a
self-financing touring band became too unfavourable for us in 1974. Petrol
prices went through the roof and new legislation requiring fire prevention
measures caused the demise of the cheap B&Bs we relied on, living on the
road and travelling from gig to gig. More money was going out than coming
in. So we split. I then went on to spend two years with a Western Swing band
called Shucks, playing the same pub rock scene as AC/DC, Brinsley Schwarz,
Dire Straits and the like, but also playing social clubs and country and
western clubs! We always said that the right music knew no barriers.

I carried on doing session
work (overall I have made over 50 albums) and in the 1980s became part of
the Roxon Roadshow, a country rock ensemble – at times 12 piece – that had
its own recording studio, record label, and regularly backed visiting
artists at Wembley. Carrying on playing with different bands I formed The
Boogie Band in 1993 and we became a firm favourite at jazz, blues, rock and
world music festivals, also playing many stately homes and functions – all
with the same act, would you believe!

An accident caused me to
give up touring in 2000, so I’m now having fun in Swanage, Dorset,
organising weekends celebrating blues and other types of music, and playing
when I get a chance. I’ve lost touch with a lot of my musical friends over
the years, but welcome contact from anybody interested.

BLUES IN THE SOUTH

- interviewed by

Ian McKenzie, Editor

What first turned you on to the blues and how old were you?

It was 1965 and I was 15 years old at school in a wheelchair
(due to Polio as a child) when I heard a kid playing blues harmonica for the
first time. It was like being smacked round the face! Suddenly I knew that I
could do it, and I could do it better. He advised me to get Sonny Boy
Williamson's single 'Help Me', flipside 'Bye Bye Bird'. I asked my mum for
a harp and the single for Christmas and took it from there.

The next 'big experience' was aged 17 at the end-of-term
school dance at the Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe, where the band was
John Mayall's Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton, John McVie and Hughie Flint.
I shared a bottle of Chianti with Eric and played his Les Paul. For some
time afterwards I was motivated by the thought that "if these guys at our
school dance can be professional musicians, why can't I?" Not realising
exactly whose company I had been in...

Later on I played accordion on a McGuinness-Flint album,
supported Fleetwood Mac a few times when I was in 'Brewers Droop', played in
a band with Mayall's first guitarist Roger Dean, but have as yet not met up
with Eric again.

Of course, I was house pianist and harp player at the
legendary Nags Head in High Wycombe during the 1960s and 1970s, so from the
age of 16 I was constantly influenced by the many blues legends that played
at my local pub. We even had Freddie King and his American band twice in one
week!

What instruments do you play?

Keyboards, harp, a little guitar.

What is your preferred instrument, make, type and so on, and
why?

Piano for the vast range of music
possible, harp for the feel. Any keyboard will do, but I use a Roland piano
and Hohner Blues Harps.

Which blues men and women have influenced you most?

Not bragging, but the ones I either met or worked with!
Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup, Lightnin' Slim and Whispering Smith, Muddy Waters,
Howling Wolf, Billy Boy Arnold, The Mighty Flea, Jo-Ann Kelly and many more.

Who is your current/contemporary favourite artist?

My CD player is currently stacked with albums by artists I've
been introduced to by London agency Small Planet Music: Tim Royce, Pete
Saunders' New Originals, Fatjacket, The Barcodes, The Incredible Blues
Puppies, Ray Stubbs, Sonny Black and Robin Bibi. I really like what they're
doing and - as someone who gets sent loads of albums from artists home and
abroad for promotional purposes - I reckon that their playing and the mood
they create compares favourably with a lot of the major label albums. The
blues has always been about 'Now' and these guys are out there gigging and
working, playing live music and giving it life. Check 'em out.

Which musician, now departed, would you most like to have
seen and why?

Since I was inspired by Sonny Boy Williamson - he was the one
who really got me out of that wheelchair, into bands and a career in music -
it must be him. He played at the Town Hall just down the road from where I
lived but I was ill that night and never saw him play.

What is your view of the 'state of the blues in the UK'?

Given the huge amount of entertainment available for home
consumption nowadays, pretty damn good. There is nothing like real music
being played live, and that's where UK blues is at. I can't say for the
whole of the country, but down here in Dorset the blues is thriving. There
are more blues gigs in Weymouth and Portland, for example, than there are in
many cities! Not forgetting the Swanage Blues Festival, admission free - see
www.swanage-blues.org

What makes a good audience (eg listeners, dancers, drunks)?

What makes a good audience? Good entertainers! I come from
the days when it was the artists' job to capture the audiences' attention
and lift their spirits, and was taught by people like Lonnie Donegan and
Arthur Crudup.

What is your favourite record/CD in your collection and why?

My favourite LP is a Sonny Boy Williamson studio album with
Memphis Slim, Matt Murphy and Billy Stepney on drums (strangely, no bass
player). I went to look up the title for you but it's missing, so I've now
got withdrawal symptoms pretty big time! If anybody can help me locate a CD
copy of this, let me know please. It's absolutely classic, and features
great solo work by Sonny Boy, brilliant piano, exquisite guitar and that old
'Windy City' drumming with brushes, that works so well. Totally classic and
should be in every blues fan's collection - maybe that's why I can't find
mine!

What do you think of Brownie McGhee's comment that "Blues is
Truth"?

Whenever any of those old blues men talked, I listened... I
learnt a lot that way. And I sure ain't gonna argue with Brownie McGhee!